I am an award-winning freelance writer and editor, specializing in plain-language writing and substantive and stylistic editing. For more than 15 years, I have worked closely with my clients in order to translate their messages and goals into clear, compelling copy. Whether it’s writing a handbook for parents of children in hospital, a magazine article for women on the latest advances in cancer screening, a series of researcher profiles for a university, an annual report for a not-for-profit, or a book for judges on making their courtrooms more user-friendly, I synthesize complex materials into informative, user-friendly text that’s a pleasure to read. Have a look at what my clients say about my work.

I’ll write about pretty much anything, but I have expertise in particular on parenting, LGBTQ family issues, health and wellness, issues related to cancer, personal finance and law.

Personal finance

I love writing about money! In addition to ghostwriting a book on life insurance, I write a quarterly newsletter for financial services company Al G. Brown & Associates.I'm also a regular contributor to Advisor's Edge and Advisor's Edge Reports magazines, and advisor.ca. Here are some recent articles:

The Canadian Bar Association’s National and CCCA magazines:

I’ve written for the Canadian Bar Association National and CCCA magazines for more than a dozen years, writing lawyer profiles, articles on practice management and issues and the latest legal trends for law firms and in-house counsel.

A series of five articles on cervical screening, for the Ontario Cervical Screening Program (OCSP) published in 50Plus Magazine

Website content

I recently wrote the content for the Canadian Cancer Society, Ontario Division’s Get Screened website, promoting colon, breast and cervical cancer screening to LGBTQ people in Ontario.

I’ve worked for more than a decade with Al G. Brown & Associates, a boutique insurance and financial services firm in Toronto. I also write AGB’s newsletters and other marketing and promotional materials.

I’ve written 20+ Stories of Hope — online profiles of cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and volunteers — for the Canadian Cancer Society at the national level, and .

Books

Drawing the line: Ten steps to constructive discipline — and achieving a great relationship with your kids (Grand Central Publishing, 2006), with child psychologists and TV personalities Dr. Michael Weiss and Dr. Sheldon Wagner. “In the bestselling tradition of “1-2-3 Magic” comes a unique and controversial approach that tells parents in order to eliminate conflict with their child, they must first create it. The authors introduce a ten-step program that shows parents how to create and engineer conflict to help their children break inappropriate habits and learn more productive ways of behaving.”

Teaching, writing, and presenting

I’ve given several workshops, on writing, editing, anthologies, and blogging, to organizations including the PARO Centre forWomen’s Enterprise, Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop, and The Other 10% youth group

Awards

2014 Ontario Arts Council Writer's Works in Progress grant for the short story collection Love in the Time of Twitter